Rain
by Ryuuzaki Kusakurin
Summary: Years after meeting Sho, Kei continuously refuses to go into the rain. As Sho's teenage years wear on, he finally finds a solution to one problem to solve another.


"Rain" by Ryuuzaki Kusakurin and Aina Kirisaki  
_Beta Reader: Yumi Mitora Kusakurin_

**DISCLAIMER:** Ryuuzaki _still_ doesn't own even a copy of the movie. One can assume that Aina is in the same boat.

**Warnings:** Angst  
**Characters:** Kei, Sho  
**Pairings:** None

A friend and I swapped off on writing this; we got dared to write a non-slash fic somewhere along the line, and so we went through and wrote it! It's short, but I thought it was decent enough to post - this is my first completed Moon Child fanfic.

Review! Please tell me what I can do differently next time to make it better.

* * *

**RAIN**

I love the rain; it reminds me of when I was growing up. The rainy days were always the best times; Kei would be able to play with Toshi and I - Onii-san would always sit them out. He would glare at Kei the entire time, but it didn't matter to any of us at the time. We were happy, and Shinji wasn't going to ruin that for us. Even his foul stares would eventually break down into good-natured jibes at one of us, and he would ignore Kei entirely. I still think that this was better than open hatred for each other. Kei didn't like Shinji, and Shinji didn't like Kei, but they put up with each other for Toshi and I, because we were younger and would be upset if they were openly hostile. This didn't stop Shinji's 'monster' comments, but it didn't stop us from playing games and generally having fun, either.

The game of 'hide and go seek' was one Kei was endlessly good at, if memory serves. He was always able to find any of us, no matter where we hid. It wasn't until a few years ago that he finally admitted that he could smell us more than he could see us, and he used that to find us.

As we grew up, Kei still came out on rainy days, but it was for different reasons; to come out for walks through Mallepa, to drive through the streets, to walk on the beach. We were too old to play now, and I think he realized that before we did.

It wasn't until years later - when we all had actually grown up enough for him to leave if he wanted to - that we started going on jobs without him, and Kei would become too world-weary to come out during the rain anymore.

* * *

**Sho age 16**

"Kei, it's raining!" the teenager offered, excitement brewing underneath the surface. It threatened to bubble up and Kei sighed, wondering why on earth he had decided to stay as long as he had. Sho needed him, for sure, but it was times like these that he did wonder about his own sanity.

"Take an umbrella with you, then," he replied evenly, knowing that wasn't what the boy wanted to hear. Only three weeks ago, Toshi and Sho had snuck around Kei, stealing guns from a local pawn shop and taking on one of the smaller gangs of Mallepa. When Sho had tip-toed into the apartment well after midnight, he had been on edge, knowing that he reeked of blood and that the vampire would easily pick up on that fact if he was home. He had instead opted to drown out the scent by scrubbing it off his body in the shower, which had led to an interesting discussion afterwards when Sho had realized he wasn't as sneaky as he had initially assumed.

"That's not what I meant, Kei," Sho told him quietly, his soft voice almost distant. I wanted you to come with me, he mentally added. Kei was something of an older brother to Sho, always there when he needed him. But lately... "Don't you like the rain?"

Kei's expression turned sour and he turned away, lighting a cigarette instead of answering at first. Sho snatched it away, crushing it against the glass ashtray nearby with a faint noise of disgust for the object in the back of his throat.

"Not anymore," he offered softly, taking Sho's annoyance in stride and tapping another cigarette out. Before he could light it, Sho had turned away, ignoring him as much as he could.

"I'm going out," he said loudly, walking out the door and slamming it shut as if to make a point. He didn't know quite how well he had broken through Kei's barriers, but it was more than the vampire let on. Of that much was certain.

Kei, for his part, waited until Sho's footsteps had finally faded away to collapse against a worn armchair, exhausted. Sho couldn't know how much this starvation diet was getting to him, couldn't find out...

He would worry too much.

As long as he could cover with the story of simply not wanting to go out, Sho wouldn't find out. And that was final.

* * *

**Sho age 17**

"Rain again today," Kei sighed, leaning back in the chair and answering his own question about the weather when he heard the light pattering of the droplets against the walls of their apartment. "There's an umbrella by the door." He lit a cigarette to stave off any of Sho's attempts to drag him out into the day while he could, knowing that if he was smoking, the youth would generally leave him alone.

"I know," Sho grumbled, snatching the lit addiction out of Kei's mouth and placing it in his own, taking a long drag off of it before pacing back towards the daybed. "Let me guess," he called, pulling it from his mouth to exhale again, "you don't want to come." Kei remained silent. If Sho finally understood, he might leave him alone... "Oh, for the love of -" Sho finally fumed, exasperated; Kei suspected that his aforementioned silence had a lot to do with it. "You haven't left the apartment in three days, not even at night, Kei. You can't tell me to live a little if you're not going to," he accused, alluding to the fact that Kei had once again begun starving himself out of the need to pretend he was human, even if it was only for a little while. Kei knew it was true, and it didn't matter, because he had long since mastered the art of ignoring Sho as much as one was able to before he attempted to physically make Kei listen. Even then, he could ignore the kid if he needed to.

"I don't feel like it," he told the approaching youth softly, closing his eyes. Sho abruptly stopped, knowing what was happening, as always. Kei didn't want to leave the apartment because he was afraid that he'd kill someone _despite_ his own convictions.

"I'll be back soon, then," Sho grumbled, stalking off. It was obvious that something was wrong with Kei; he was always tired, always so weak... The vampire wasn't feeding, and had all but given up on hiding it.

Unable to bear the harsh realities that he saw there, Sho didn't return for three days.

* * *

**Sho age 19**

"I'm not leaving unless you are."

"Yes, you are."

"No, I'm not," Sho protested stubbornly. He had refused to leave the apartment during rainy days unless Kei stayed with him for the past few months, and had stayed up at night as long as he could before exhaustion won. As a human, he could only keep this up for so long...

"I don't want to go out." Sho snorted at this before retorting with his unique way of phrasing things.

"And I'm a fucking _ape_." Teenage years hadn't tempered his language, despite Kei's attempts. Either that, or the stress of the situation was getting to him more than the vampire had previously thought.

"Just go," Kei sighed, waving him off. "Let me sleep. It isn't natural for you to adjust your life to mine." Sho left the room then, and Kei relaxed until the scent of the one thing he had denied himself hit the air, followed by a soft grunt.

_Blood_.

"Sho?" he called, almost afraid to ask why. He could hear the teen's movements in the kitchen as he moved to the sink and began to wash something off, ignoring the query. "Sho, answer me," he called, ready to leave if the scent got any stronger. It was already winding through the air, saturating it with the tempting aroma, and he wasn't entirely sure how long his self-imposed control would hold.

"You're afraid to go out because you're thirsty, right?" Kei's silence answered the question easily enough, and so he didn't bother to continue prompting from the other room. The sound of fabric against skin followed, accompanied by the slicing noise scissors made when closed around material. Only a moment later, Sho re-entered, thrusting a cup forward, into Kei's hands.

The blonde stared at it, wide-eyed.

"Drink. Now." Sho waited impatiently, staring at the vampire until he hesitantly lifted the cup to his lips, jerking away as soon as the first droplet fell onto his tongue. "Kei..." Sho warned, folding his arms across his chest.

"Sho, don't make me," Kei begged, everything about his body language desperate as he held the dark cup out for Sho to take, still full of the crimson liquid. "I don't want it."

"Just drink it and thank me later," Sho grumbled, turning around and stalking out, his hand pressed to his left wrist. That was when Kei realised what had transpired only a moment ago - in his confusion, he hadn't put the pieces together.

"Sho!" he called, glancing at the still-full cup of Sho's blood as the bathroom door slammed shut. The boy was hurting himself over this, perhaps more than Kei was. Hesitantly reaching for it, Kei curled back up in the armchair he had been lazing in, pressing it to his lips and closing his eyes with a quiet sigh. It was what he needed; he was relatively sated by the time he was through. Standing up and padding towards the bathroom, he knocked softly on the closed door. "Let me in?" he asked quietly, uncomfortably shifting his weight from one foot to the other as he waited. "If there's anything I can do to help..."

"It's okay," Sho replied, voice muffled by the door. "You can come in if you want to." The door swung open at his words to reveal a worried-looking Kei.

"You're an idiot, you know?" he sighed, kneeling down to clean the self-made wound. Nicking his tongue on the tip of a canine, he held Sho's wrist carefully and asked him plainly, "Do you trust me?" Sho nodded, and Kei brought the injury to his mouth, swiping his blood over the cut.

"Kei, what -" Kei jerked himself away from the bloody mess immediately, cleaning Sho's wrist and dropping it. Only a minute later, it had sealed and, from all appearances, it had never been injured.

"Better?" the vampire queried calmly, wiping his mouth this time. Standing up, he shook his head and offered a hand to assist Sho up.

"So can we go out now?" the teenager asked, still quite centred on his original idea.

"I..." Kei paused, taking in his current condition and then deciding that he would be alright. "Let's go."

"You're serious?" Sho turned to face him, surprised.

"I said we could go," the vampire told him, brushing past him and towards the front door. "If it prevents a stunt like that, I'll go."

"Thanks, Kei," Sho answered honestly, following the shorter man out the door, into the rain.


End file.
